Korg Forums

[xp50player]

After leaving my Kronos with my local Service Center, a Mom & Pop store, for 2 weeks with no progress or contact, I stopped by to check on it. Nothing, no estimate on when it would even be looked at.

I asked a sales person, if there is a large backlog, why don't they have more than one tech who works part-time? He said, "You ask a lot of questions." And the next local place I called has 1 guy who works 2 days a week and also has a backlog.

I was told that their official policy is to give priority to out-of-warranty repairs because they pay better. Then they will attend to warranty repairs for units purchased in-store. Then, if and when they run out of the latter, they begin to tackle the outside warranty repairs.

This smacks of corruption to me, and I think it shows the conflict of interest in the Authorized Service Center concept, in lieu of a USA factory repair center. These people are in no hurry, and aren't accountable to anybody but their store manager's profit motives.

Is that consistent with their contract, to overtly bump elsewhere-purchased warranty repairs to the bottom of the pile?

Did I think this would get done in 2 weeks? No. I have seen reports of 4-6 weeks typically in this forum and am prepared for that. What I did not expect was to be told that I'm their last priority, because I did not buy the Kronos there, and be chided for it.
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RD-800, Kronos 61, Fantom 6, MODX6, 01/Wfd

[GregC]

after such shabby treatment, why would you still leave your Kronos there ?

is it because you got this from a ' disinterested party' such as the store salesperson ?
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Kronos 88. MODX8
Achieve your musical dreams
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[xp50player]

Nobody there is interested. They shouldn't be an Authorized Service Center, because they are not up to it and only profit motivated. I may take it to the other major place because it is a keyboard-only dealer, but they sound like they are equally backlogged and understaffed. I can get my car engine swapped with a days notice, with no bias if bought elsewhere. Yet owners of these multi-thousand dollar keyboards are left hanging for an indeterminate amount of time, at the whim of sketchy local shops.
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RD-800, Kronos 61, Fantom 6, MODX6, 01/Wfd

[GregC]

[rderderian]

My keyboard was making clunking noises so I called Korg and they told me to take it to my nearby repair center. They tried to fix it but in the end made it worse when I got it back. They told me if the repair was not acceptable, to call Korg. As now one of the keys stuck after the repair Korg told me to send it to them.

Korg fixed it within a few weeks by replacing the entire keybed as they told me it was bent and could not be fixed.

Anyway, I am very satisfied now.

So, based on your experience and mine, I am thinking that these local repair shops may not be able to deal with certain repairs properly.

I think Korg wants the local shops to attempt repair first.

[xp50player]

Korg is working me up a return authorization for service, so all will be well, and at least it will be in the right hands.
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RD-800, Kronos 61, Fantom 6, MODX6, 01/Wfd

[firstlovedan]

I had this experience with a keyboard (Not Korg). The manufacturer gave me a list of repair places here in Cincinnati... Not even ONE would even take it because it was a warrantee repair! So, it is not just Korg. Apparently warranty repairs are not as profitable.
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'Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"

[geoelectro]

I might be able to shed a little light on this situation. I have been a service tech for over 35 years. I am authorized Yamaha, Roland, and several others. However, my main function is that of Organ repair. In organ repair you must go on location. As such, the rates are higher. In other words, I make more money servicing organs that I do keyboards. I like staying in the shop to do keyboards but it it is a hit to profits.

Warranty work is worse since most companies pay warranty rates equal to about half what we normally charge. If we service for a large dealer, we make an agreement for the dealer to pickup the difference. Since the dealer makes money on the sale, a small charge for a potential warranty call to keep the customer happy is usually agreeable.

If someone brings a warranty job in from another dealer we don't have an agreement with, we lose the dealer portion. As a service company our number one goal is to make money. One of the ways we insure this is by offering excellent service. That insures return customers. I try not to separate customers based on these different payment options, but try to simply take them in order.

We started on organs before keyboards were really that common. One thing I noticed was a major difference between organ costumers and keyboard customers. Organ customers were very happy that we would actually come out to their location to work on their organ. They would patiently wait until we could get them on the schedule. Keyboard customers were not so patient. Complain about the cost etc. I am a keyboard player and would never want to have to be without my instrument for very long so I understand. Still, the difference is remarkable.

Service centers are not owned by the factories, they are simply authorized. A service center must keep up with all the different policies of every company they do warranty work for. The paper work is much higher while the pay is less. We do it because then we get all non-warranty work referred to us by the dealer and factory. Products come out so fast these days it's nearly impossible to keep up with what parts we need to stock etc. A product may be out for several years before we ever see one. We don't see them until they break.

A typical turn around time for our shop is 1 to 2 weeks. We charge $80.00 an hour. There are shops in out area that charge $150.00 for keyboards (our rate applies to all products) and take many more weeks to turn around. In some cases we have set up appointments for a "repair while you wait" where we know exactly what is wrong and have all the necessary parts on hand. It would be nice if that could be the norm.

I'm off to my "appointment" for my car repair...

Geo
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Kronos 61 : 3GB RAM 120GB 2nd Drv.
Kronos 2 61
Synthesizers.com Custom Modular
N.I. Komplete 11, Omnisphere 2, VB-3.
HP i7 8GB Win 10
Yamaha P-80 Weighted Keyboard. NanoPad2

[Davidb]